This book examines Karl Popper’s attempt to develop a political theory that draws upon Socratic fallibilism and commitment to ethical autonomy while preserving progressive sociological insights and commitment to activism. Philip Benesch argues that Popper’s critique of Marxist theory is largely an endeavor to separate its progressive-activist core from its positivist and uncritical-rationalist entanglements. The author defends Popper against the charges of positivism and scientism leveled by the Frankfurt School, among others. Although he is in no sense an apologist for Popper’s commentary on the classical tradition of philosophy, Benesch contends that Popper’s philosophical contribution is of classical breadth and significance and that it continues and advances “the great Conversation” that is the substance of the classical tradition.

Philip Benesch is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania.

This list of resources was first compiled in 2005 after circulating an email message to a list of people from the Popper Centenary Conference in Vienna, plus others known or suspected to be interested in the work of Karl Popper and critical rationalism. It was updated in 2007 and 2008.

Moving from email to the on-line format means that the list can be updated continuously and it is accessible to people who are not on my mailing list. Please send corrections and additions to rchamp AT bigpond DOT net DOT au

References and links to reviews of the proceedings of the 2002 conferences (Vienna, Christchurch etc) will be especially welcome.

The resource aims to serve a number of functions:

To list the major “standing sites” such as the Popper Web and the Critical Rationalist site.

To signal new books, articles and other resources.

To pre-publish the proceedings of conferences (with permission).

To signal “work in progress” in case there is scope for the exchange of ideas in their preliminary form, long before publication in the normal course of events.

Other: notices of forthcoming events, deaths etc.

One of the possible additions that comes to mind is a directory of courses on Popper and critical rationalism. I suspect that this would not be lengthy.

This book examines Karl Popper’s attempt to develop a political theory that draws upon Socratic fallibilism and commitment to ethical autonomy while preserving progressive sociological insights and commitment to activism. Philip Benesch argues that Popper’s critique of Marxist theory is largely an endeavor to separate its progressive-activist core from its positivist and uncritical-rationalist entanglements. The author defends Popper against the charges of positivism and scientism leveled by the Frankfurt School, among others. Although he is in no sense an apologist for Popper’s commentary on the classical tradition of philosophy, Benesch contends that Popper’s philosophical contribution is of classical breadth and significance and that it continues and advances “the great Conversation” that is the substance of the classical tradition.

Philip Benesch is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania.

2012 additions

David Harper "How Entrepreneurs Learn: A Popperian Approach and its Limitations". The section on limitations turns out to be a defence of the Popperian approach from criticisms!

A new blog by Curt Doolittle in defence of capitalism and especially private property using Popperism and Austrian economics.

Defence of Fallible Apriorism. Paper by Rafe Champion, in press. This paper argues that the best way to develop the economics of von Mises is along the lines of “fallible apriorism” rather than the strong program of apriorism advocated by Rothbard and his followers. This position is supported by Popper’s epistemology which can be described as “conjectural apriorism”. Barry Smith presented his views as a part of the Aristotelian framework that he detected in Menger’s work. This framework is practically identical to the “metaphysical research program” that Popper developed in dialogue with the physicists.

The outcome of the Popper/Smith program is a form of methodological monism that supports the main lines of the causal realist program initiated by Carl Menger.

Swann, J. (2009) Popperian selectionism and its implications for education, or ‘What to do about the myth of learning by instruction from without?’ In: Z. Parusniková and R. S. Cohen (eds) Rethinking Popper. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, pp. 379-88.

Feyerabend-Popper correspondence. At the Humboldt University of Berlin there is a project to compile the Feyerabend-Popper correspondence. (The project is not limited to letters from Feyerabend and Popper, but includes other letters about them, such as by Kuhn, Feigl, Pap and others).

A 2007 issue of the French periodical Philosophia Scientiae contains a record of the Colloque Karl Popper: Philosophe de Vingtième Siècle, which was held at the Sorbonne in December 2002. there are articles by Alain Boyer, David Miller, Elie Zahar, Jarrett Leplin, Léna Soler, Philippe de Rouilhan, and Thomas Chabin.

The proceedings of a meeting held in Cesena in 1994 were issued in 2006 as Mario Alai & Gino Tarozzi}, editors, Proceedings of the Conference Popper Philosopher of Science}, Rubbettino Editore, Soveria Mannelli.

Also in progress are the proceedings (in Romanian) of the Popper Centenary Congress held in Bucharest in 2002.

Recent and forthcoming publications by a Popperian philosopher of education:

A report from Bill Hall. The publications are available on line at his website

Most of the following works on organizational knowledge, organizational autopoiesis and the basis of knowledge in autopoiesis have a strong basis of Popperian epistemology. Warning - purists may not agree with the resulting paradigms, where I have used and interpreted Popper's ideas as an evolutionary biologist rather than as a philosopher. Note: If your browser doesn't like embedded links, I can resend this with the links in plain text.

Hall, W.P. 2006. Emergence and growth of knowledge and diversity in hierarchically complex organised systems: genesis of a theoretical framework. University of Melbourne Department of Information Sciences Research Seminar - 13 October 2006. [PowerPoint 614 KB]

Dalmaris, P., Hall, W.P., Philp, W. 2006. The time-value of knowledge: a temporal qualification of knowledge, its issues, and role in the improvement of knowledge intense business processes. KMAP 2006 The Third Asia-Pacific International Conference on Knowledge Management. Hong Kong, Dec. 11-13, 2006.

Peter Dalmaris, William P.Hall, and Wayne Philp, "The Time Value of Knowledge"

available at: http://www.futureshock.com.au/docs/Thetimevalueofknowledge.pdf

Peter Dalmaris, A framework for the improvement of knowledge-intense business processes, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Technology, Sydney, February 2006 available at:

http://www.futureshock.com.au/docs/PhDDalmarisPub.pdf

In addition, my frequent collaborator and co-author, Mark W. McElroy has a Ph.D. Dissertation in process at the University of Groningen on Sustainability and Knowledge Management that will develop certain aspects of CR further as well as a paper scheduled for publication very soon:

Mark W. McElroy, René J. Jorna, and Jo van Engelen, "Rethinking Social Capital Theory". Further details on this publication will be available soon. However, this paper contains an account of a further development of the Buhler/Popper Theory of language functions developed by Mark and I jointly.

Application Holy Wars: A Fugue on the Theory of Knowledge. This is a part finished hypertext book project that was put aside while I developed the theoretical basis for the things I wanted to say about organizational knowledge. Approximately 3/5ths of the project was completed (but will be rewritten before formal publication. I expect to resume work on the book later this year or next.